LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) eye surgery has become a widely available treatment option for correcting refractive vision errors, primarily because it offers to reduce or eliminate a patient's current need for corrective lenses. In LASIK surgery, a special laser reshapes the cornea by removing corneal tissue in a controlled manner to change the cornea's refractive properties As LASIK surgery has grown in popularity, a condition known as progressive keratectasia has been identified as a rare but very serious complication in LASIK patients, and is characterized by a progressive steepening and thinning of the cornea followed by distortion, myopic shift and irregular astigmatism. It is thought that this condition is related to weakening of the cornea in cases where ablation surgery makes the cornea too thin. Consequently, it is widely believed that residual post-LASIK stromal thickness should not be less than 250 μm. As an alternative, some researchers suggest determining the acceptable residual stromal thickness by the initial corneal thickness (e.g., 55% of the initial corneal thickness), as this approach is purported to better reflect the individual nature of each cornea. It has also been proposed to reject surgery on corneas that are below a predetermined thickness, for example 500 μm. See, for example, Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery, Vo. 28, No. 12, December 2002, Editorial by Thomas Kohnen, MD. A shortcoming of these approaches to prequalifying patients is that they are based solely on corneal or stromal thickness, and do not take into account the intrinsic material properties or characteristics of the corneal tissue that, together with the corneal geometry, determine the cornea's ability to resist deformation. Therefore, a need exists for a method and system capable of measuring biomechanical characteristics of corneal tissue relating to elasticity and the ability to resist deformation.